The same week that the Madrid president Isabel Díaz Ayuso accused the central Government of favoring Catalonia with the proposed financing model, the real data show that the State invested 2.4 times more in Madrid than in Catalonia last year. The Catalan community received in 2025 8.6% of all the investment that the State executed in the country and that can be regionalized by autonomous communities, as La Vanguardia revealed yesterday, with official data from the IGAE of the Ministry of Finance.
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The share of the pie that corresponded to Catalonia last year was less than half of its weight in the overall GDP (19%) and far from its weight in the population (17%). Madrid, on the other hand, took 20.9%, a percentage higher than its contribution to the GDP.
In total, in 2025 the investment executed in Catalonia was 1,321 million euros. It is 28.5% higher than that of 2023 (the last year with approved budgets) although 6.2% below the figure for 2024, which was 1,409 million, equivalent to 10.8% of the total investment.
The chronically low budget execution of the State in Catalonia is one of the main complaints of Catalan civil society that extends from employers’ associations and unions to political parties and the academic world, and yesterday its criticisms intensified. The positive part of the figures is that in 2024 and 2025, the State spent more than 1,300 million in the Catalan community. It is a significantly higher amount than in the period 2013-2022 when it never exceeded 1,000 million.
The problem arises when these figures are compared with those of other communities. Last year, for example, Catalonia was the fifth community where the State invested the most money with the aforementioned 1,321 million. Madrid received 3,218 million, almost the same as Catalonia in three years. The State also invested more in the Valencian Community (1,738 million), probably as a consequence of reconstruction works due to the dana, Andalusia (1,620) and Galicia (1,580).
Half of the spending in the community went to the railway infrastructure manager Adif
The comparisons are even worse when the mentioned investment is related to the population. In that case, Catalonia is the penultimate community in real spending per inhabitant with 163 euros. Murcia, on the other hand, received 590 euros. However, economists warn that the calculation per inhabitant tends to overweight less densely populated territories, for example, with more kilometers of road per inhabitant.
Last year’s figures are among the worst in recent years if compared with the rest of the autonomous communities. To find a lower participation in state investment than last year, it is necessary to go back to 2014.
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The data also show that half of the money executed last year in Catalonia was borne by Adif, the railway infrastructure manager. Joan Ramon Rovira, director of the study service of the Barcelona Chamber, highlights that although the investment is well below the weight of GDP in Catalonia “in public companies it can be seen that the Adif Rodalies Plan is gaining momentum by going from 262.4 million euros in 2023 to 578.8 in 2025.” Rovira adds that the rest of the investments of public companies are “in line with executions of recent years.”
The information on the execution of investments that was traditionally published every six months on the website of the State General Intervention (IGAE), is now sent by the Ministry of Finance directly to the secretariats of the Congress of Deputies to distribute it to parliamentary groups. Yesterday the information for the second half of 2024 and the whole year 2025 was provided. Catalan political groups – such as Junts and ERC – have been demanding for years that it be published periodically again.
Minister Romero highlighted that the investment figure has doubled compared to 2018
Since the State budgets are extended, it is not possible to analyze the execution percentage in relation to the budgeted amount. Each year that they are extended, the same budget is calculated. Even so, spending in all years is below what was allocated in the case of Catalonia in the last 2023 budgets. However, if what was actually executed in 2025 is compared with the extended 2023 budgets, the execution is 58%.
The Minister of Economy, Alicia Romero, said yesterday after the figures were known that “in recent years the upward trend of investment that the State makes in Catalonia is consolidated” although she added that “we would like the increase to be more significant.” Romero indicated that “in relation to 2018 we are almost doubling the figure that was dedicated.”
On the other hand, from Junts, its spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, criticized on the social network X that, in relation to the population, Catalonia is the penultimate autonomous community that received the least public investment. “Why are Catalans the penultimate on the list?” she asked.
